Allentown-Philadelphia would be much better handled by rail, however. Don’t know why Amtrak is intent on offering service from NYC to the area; while NYC is certainly a draw for anyone in the Northeast, the region surrounding Bethlehem/Allentown has always been more directly connected to Philadelphia than New York.

The Bethlehem Branch’s ROW is fantastically straight for a route in the eastern US. I’m sure if significant investment was put into the line, we’d see good ridership.

As someone who lives pretty close to Allentown, I've read that the majority of recently added residents are people who were formerly from the New York City, Northern New Jersey area. (Attempting to drive I-78 East in the morning affirms that observation.) Apparently those people skew all of the polling that has been done on rail service restoration towards NYC versus Philadelphia. I'm much rather be able to take a trip to Philadelphia, and have little desire to go to NY/NJ, but I'm just a transplant from Western Pennsylvania who despises all big cities. :)

The Reading's Bethlehem Branch is an exceptional piece of railroad in my opinion, and should have never been "abandoned". I walked part of the new rail trail this Spring from Quakertown, and although it's a nice trail, it was sad to see, especially since I had hiked the out of service railroad twenty years earlier. SEPTA in inept, and the line will likely never be restored for rail service to the Lehigh Valley, which is a real shame.

If you're very young ( under 10 years old) you might (operative word might) see this late in your lifetime ( if you live to 80 plus) , otherwise it will continue to be a consultants wet dream requiring at least 6 more " studies".

IMHO-Ross Rowland

RDG's Bethlehem Branch may seem straight on a map but it's a series of dips and hogbacks except for Rockhill Grade. RDG moved through Allentown freight over the Perkiomen Branch until the Blandon Low Grade opened in 1956. Then it used the Main Line, Reading Belt Line, Blandon Low Grade and East Penn Branches.

At times RDG would send the Push-Pull train on midday Bethlehem trains to ensure something with a locomotive used the track.

RDG did send ore trains over the Bethlehem Branch with 5 RS-3's, later 5 GP39-2's because the destination was up the hill from Bethlehem. Sometimes they got pull-aparts. These trains only ran when a boat came into Port Richmond.

That all said, there's very little market for bus travel from Bethlehem-Allentown to Philadelphia versus NY. This would inply there's very little market for rail travel in the same corridor.

Phil Mulligan

Ross, to the best of my knowledge it’s a line item in the infrastructure bill. If the bill passes, it’s all but a done deal. The local rail authority is paying around 400k to advance the feasibility study, most of which has already been completed, ad nauseam, in several prior studies for independent restoration and operation of the cutoff. It’s mostly a matter of blowing off the dust, updating the wages and projected costs, and adding a few buzzwords. They won’t risk letting this fish get away once it’s on the hook.

Believe it or not I just got through reading the 2,700 page Infrastructure bill for another project I'm involved in and I did not see a line item for restoring Scranton rail service. I may well have missed it but I read the different rail related sections carefully. I don't think it's in there??

Hope it happens but count me a skeptic for sure.

Ross Rowland

I agree with Ross.

I just painfully scanned through that document and also didn't see anything specifically which mentioned the service restoration to Scranton. On p792, the § 25101. Corridor Identification and Development Program section seemed like it would cover what they are doing, but it doesn't mention any specific funding. On p73 the section § 22910. Interstate Rail Compacts Grant Program might also cover it, but it has a maximum funding limit of $1,000,000 per year, which is nothing to this project.

This Railway Age story here:
https://www.railwayage.com/news/amtrak-scranton-to-new-york-city/
has good information as does the linked Wikipedia article in it.

Reading through this huge bill makes me think that our government may be a bit too over-reaching and out of control, but hey, it's probably fun spending money that isn't yours....

Looks like I need to setup some sort of transportation research consulting company, so I too can profit! ;)